Stuffed toys are designed for a variety of uses. For example, children and pets play with stuffed animals, dolls, balls, and other stuffed toys having innumerable shapes and sizes.
There are numerous stuffed toy products available in the marketplace that are designed for use by a wide variety of domestic animals including cats. Cat toys including those containing a cat attractant material such as catnip abound. Such toys stimulate cat play because of the minty fragrance of the catnip. As can be appreciated, there are a number of design considerations for such toys, in part due to the need for the delivery of the visceral effects of the cat attractant material while offering a safe and convenient product.
Catnip or Nepatia cataria is a plant native to parts of Europe, the Middle East, and some parts of Asia, and has been introduced to North America. The dried leaves of the catnip plant have a mint-like scent as mentioned above. It is known that catnip has a hallucinogenic effect upon cats. Such a response is due to the plant's active ingredient, nepetalacetone. When a cat smells catnip, it exhibits a range of behaviors. Most reactions last from five to fifteen minutes and include sniffing, licking and chewing, chin and cheek rubbing, and head-over roll and body rubbing.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a stuffed toy which promotes interaction between a pet owner and a cat.